Image description: Photo of the ending of The Proud Family Movie with the whole cast
Time for me to hop on the bandwagon and talk about The Proud Family since the reboot is out, in fact being louder and prouder as it promised. I know I'm about 17 years late to the game with this movie critique, but I don't see anybody else talking about it, and considering the movie came out when I was 11, I was never going to fully appreciate this buck wild masterpiece until I had undergone my formative college years. Ahh college, where I learned how to properly cite tweets in research papers, deftly analyze Buzz Lightyear's identity crisis, and learn how to color inside the lines. Yes, my powers of deduction only improved at college, which I guess means that degree was worth it if I allows me to write detailed film studies of dated Disney cash grabs for an audience of my friend group and the lucky LinkedIn followers that happen upon my "Share to all social media" strategy. (You guys are the real MVPs).
The Proud Family was one of those early forms of representation that were actually pretty legit while also being so cartoonishly outlandish that you simultaneously relate to the characters while laughing at the shenanigans they find themselves in. For example, how in the flippity-doo is Oscar providing for this family with a failing snack corporation with his only employees being monkeys that, if they knew Oscar's wife Trudy was a veterinarian and animal advocate, would've drafted up an animal abuse campaign that would make PETA bow down. Crazy thing is, Oscar wasn't even physically abusing these animals. HOWEVER, in the land of animal testing, it's one thing to put lipstick on a pig. It's another to force a monkey to eat Proud Snacks. At least the lipstick might taste a little better. Proud Snacks straight up killing people out here and he still ain't been shut down by the FDA. Crazy.
There are so many great black culture references to point out in The Proud Family series from the plot lines of Soul Train dancers and Magic Johnson bootlegs, to the fact that they are literally black and Proud with a capital P, to the talented icons behind the voices. I practically grew up listening to the same voice actors over and over again (shoutout to Phil Lamarr and Cree Summer) but Kyla Pratt's sassy whine practically was my inner tween voice. If you remember her from One on One, bless you, because it really did feel like One on One and The Proud Family were in the same universe as each other, and if Oscar had an ounce of the swagger that his brother Bobby did, he coulda made an interesting alternate universe Flex Washington. Follow me for more Cinematic Universe theories.
All of the black culture references culminate in the movie series finale. The Proud Family Movie is just crazy. The stakes are amped up to 11, and nobody asked for this. We spent so much time with minor stakes in the show, and even the crazier episodes were still pretty grounded in reality. You had your classic "naive black youth forgets their roots, so they have a fever dream about some mainstream black historical figures before they have to give their big report in class" episode. You had your "parents just don't understand" arc as pretty much every B-plot in the show. You had tweens sneaking out for late night movies, adventures in BeBe sitting, allowance woes - all things I had seen before on other family-oriented television, but this was different. I am not ashamed to admit that I have seen the entire Full House (and Fuller House) series. The former I'm pretty sure being the only series I had seen to completion without the aid of the internet and streaming services. Scary, I know. And while I know that there probably weren't going to be a lot of people relating to the three dads raising kids in San Francisco but aren't gay narrative, you had a fair amount of stories and after school specials to buff out the connectivity gaps. That said, I didn't watch Full House because I related to it. I watched it because it was reliably something that was on that was appropriate for me that I could follow the storyline and the jokes.
I also remember watching a lot of the adult black sitcoms growing up on UPN, but those were for adults. Sure, I'd watch The Jamie Foxx Show, but half of that is sex jokes that I wouldn't get for years. And for those shows that were aimed at kids, you'd still sometimes have a disconnect even with those black family shows. I'd watch Fresh Prince and swoon over Will Smith because I just knew he was gonna be my man one day even though I was the same age as his virtually unknown first child Trey (if you're reading this, Trey, we see you). Heck, Will Smith was the first rapper I got introduced to, and I am embarrassed to admit that. If you know me in real life, it explains a lot. But little Willy from Philly wasn't me. Classy Carlton or fancy Hilary weren't me. Ashley was probably the closest, but when she got sassy, I balked. Do you know I woulda been thrown sideways like Jazz for some of the stuff those kids got away with? Crazy. And yeah, there were shows on actual kid channels I could be watching, but Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon were a little... pale. And Disney's ethnic characters were also pretty whitewashed. I was today years old when I learned that Miranda was Latina. I just thought she was white, maybe vaguely Asian? That's So Raven was definitely up there with my preferred shows, but there was also an area of disbelief with it. Maybe it was just the functional families living in California that didn't resonate with me.
I don't know where The Proud Family lived. Sure I could Google it now, but that runs the risk of me falling off on another tangent, and I just can't take that chance. Their location seemed pretty fluid, especially with the funky backgrounds not really nailing it down anywhere. But you knew they lived in a medium-to-largish metropolis with beaches and/or bodies of water and maybe a bus or two. There was this understanding that the Prouds had enough money to sustain a family and their house and whatnot, but also maybe were a single income household cuz Oscar clearly ain't helping, and you see how often Penny has to struggle to have enough money to get shaken down by the Gross Sisters. I think it was the ambiguity of their financial situation that provided this more blank canvas for any kid to latch onto, and the fact that you had such a diverse cast of characters with quirks and family dynamics, breakdowns and bust downs, and the occasional lesson to be learned like a proper kid-friendly show that Disney would air. But Disney also had this tropical island family vacation kick for their apex shows turned movies for some reason, and even that common thread cannot tie these other shows to whatever the heck was happening in The Proud Family movie.
Image description: Uhhh... how do you even describe this? Uh the evil Dr. Carver removes his... face mask? To reveal that he is a similar genetically unstable mutation like so many of the real Carver's inventions?
So I rewatched this movie today because a Tik Tok was replaying the dance battle scene. Any time there's a dance battle, I'm a fan. It's always nonsense. Never makes sense, logically should not deescalate any conflict, but somehow that exertion of raw emotional energy and the recognition that your foes got game helps squash any beef. And I say this as someone who cannot dance (I've got like baseline black person rhythm, but that really only permits me to step back and forth and follow along to the Cha Cha Slides of the world. Twerking, grinding, gyrating, or breakdancing are off limits and will result in a broken hip, and there's no guarantee that it'll even be my hip that gets broken). So yes, the dance battle happens at the film's climax. But that isn't even the big showdown. This dance battle happens with the henchmen, that at this point are barely henchmen because they have broken off into this hip hop enthusiast faction of traditional islanders that are going to dance battle instead of doing literally any other villainous henchmen attempt at delaying the protagonists because their people are "lovers, not fighters." Why, I ask you. Why.
And you wanna know what's the craziest thing about all of this? The dance battle was just a plot device to give background token ginger friend Zoey the confidence to apparently dance like a robotic white person who had a taste of momma's greens and never looked back so she's always invited to the cookout even though you gotta earn your plate back after daring to say no sweet potatoes, please. I repeat, Zoey is a SIDE CHARACTER. There's never even an episode that focuses on her the whole time. Sure, Penny is the main character and every episode has to focus on her, but even when you do split episodes or episodes where Penny helps Lacienega or gets left high and dry by Dijonay again (who is supposed to be her best friend), the only episode that comes to mind with our token friend Zoey in the forefront... is the Black History Month episode. And before you think about it, yes this was very much an episode about segregation, and no, Zoey is not the racist in this scenario. They made up some new background white girl to be the jerk temporarily because they already knew Zoey was on thin ice with the viewership. I don't hate Zoey. I think it's funny to have a token white friend as a ginger because so often black people are the tokens in the show. I'm even the token in my college squad in real life. I've accepted it because my peeps are cool like Zoey is, and they don't rag on me for saying dated lingo like peeps.
And now that I'm thinking back to the show's plot lines, Penny and her friends were in a singing dancing girl group.... on television... REPEATEDLY... AND ARE THE HALFTIME SHOW EQUIVALENT IN THE MOVIE AS THEIR GIRL GROUP TITLE. HOW IS ZOEY'S DANCING SKILLS THE B-PLOT (or I guess C-plot if you consider Penny and Oscar butting heads as the B-plot and the maniacal peanut taking over the world the A-plot) IN THIS MOVIE? SHE CAN CLEARLY DANCE WELL ENOUGH TO BE IN A GIRL GROUP AND NOT BE REPLACED, BECAUSE LET'S FACE IT, IF SHE WERE THAT BAD, LACIENEGA AND DIJONAY WOULDA KICKED HER TO THE CURB AND THE REST OF THE EPISODE WOULD CENTER ON PENNY DEBATING WHETHER TO BE A GOOD FRIEND OR FOLLOW DESTINY AND BECOME THE NEW BEYONCE. But I digress...
Image description: Penny, Sticky, and Dijonay about to thrown down in this dance battle, yo.
Not to get too distracted by all the weirdness in this movie, I do need to call out a few other things that reference black culture in this film that made me go off on this tirade in the first place:
George Washington Carver is an incredible Black inventor (incredible inventor period) but he's most know for peanut butter.
I just realized the evil Dr. Carver can be construed as 'the nutty professor' and this got me heated.
The evil Dr. Carter stops his villainous monologuing speech... to bust out into his villainous monologuing musical number. This movie isn't really a musical, so it's out of place, but even Trudy, who usually just allows weird things to slide, says "I know this fool ain't about to sing" which is also such a Black response.
The villain song slaps and is still stuck in my head till this day.
Oscar Proud really tried to sell a room of investors on peanutty pork rinds. Sir. Please. Explain.
Zoey really won a dance battle with this sideways cap and slang standing on Sticky's feet and her girls just cheer her on. I know it's hard to tell if she actually did good since animating a stick figure in a hip hop dance battle against some mutant peanut people is... kinda unprecedented, but y'all I need help - did she actually win this? Cuz this Tik Tok says otherwise.
Y'all it's really the positive girlfriends hyping each other up for me. That rarely really happens in the show and this reminds you that they are actually friends for some reason even though Lacienega can't stand them.
Oscar going overboard with the protective parent role just because Penny decided to go ahead and hit puberty against his will.
Trudy defending Penny's outfits (which by comparison to what we were wearing at Penny's age, were not scandalous at all. Didn't even show her kneecaps).
Penny drawing on her iconic beauty mark y'all I can't 😂
DEBBIE ALLEN WANNABE Y'ALL BOGUS.
Little nappyheaded peanut dude that warns the family not to stay on the island yet still tries to spit game at Penny and gets rightfully curved (even though it's her clone, I like to believe the real Penny would respond the same).
Suga Momma trying to get her some sugar while she got a whole man back at home who don't want her (y'all what is with these clingy black women in this show going after men that don't want them as comic relief? I feel like somebody has mentioned this before with The Parkers but that might be another post altogether).
Oscar canceled her whole birthday and said she's not allowed to turn 16. Bruh. As a black child, I still live in the entirely feasible fear of my mother canceling my birthday. One time I was on punishment and she took away my Gameboy Advance SP "until I brought my grades up" which apparently I didn't do because she later gave my Gameboy to my brother as a birthday gift and I just had to pretend like I never had it and shut my face. I never did get that SP back. Still bitter. If my mom would've had the idea to cancel my birthday, I'm sure she would've. Matter of fact, I think that was almost a threat to me because I didn't have enough of a social life to be grounded from anything, so I'm fairly certain I almost lost a birthday one time, which the fact that at this point I cared enough about throwing a birthday party for that to have been a valid threat. I might not even be 28 right now - I might've had a whole birthday just canceled and just never made up the math.
15 CENT OMG WHO LET THIS 50 CENT/LIL BOW WOW LOVE CHILD UP IN HERE OMG LAWD HOW WHO WHAT GOD I WISH I WAS IN THE WRITER'S ROOM WHEN THEY CAME UP WITH THIS CHILD OH MY GOD
AND THE SPARE CHANGE DANCERS LORD I WISH MY MOMMA WOULDA LET ME DANCE WITH A GROUP CALLED THE SPARE CHANGE DANCERS
Bobby Proud. That is all.
Image description: Kid rapper 15 Cent smiling behind the wheel of his grandmama's car with Penny riding shotgun. Seriously, 15 Cent? Who let this happen?
And now here are some just absolute crazy, nonsensical parts of the movie that I just can't ignore.
The times they broke the fourth wall in order to answer some long burning questions about Penny's outfit.
All this unabashed fourth wall breaking and we never addressed how Oscar has seriously convinced himself that he makes good snacks when he and everyone's momma pukes after one bite.
Which brings me back to how is this man not bankrupt? True love is Trudy sticking with this strict, disrespectful deadbeat.
Penny's singing voice is so clearly not Kyla Pratt and it does not work. Is that even the same voice from the LPDZ girl group episodes?
Oscar really had no problem with Penny learning how to drive EXCEPT FOR when she riding shotgun in a car with a boy she wanna kiss, and he’s still only triggered by her growing up when boys are in the picture and not the fact that your grown child can now legally drive.
Should I be offended by black people having the money to own a yacht and yet not know how to properly pronounce it?
Oscar has successfully accidentally created a formula that can replicate life and act as a steadfast preservative. There have got to be some sort of medical prospects for something like this, and my man brings this to a snack clubhouse as a dipping sauce?
Do pork rinds even typically have dipping sauce?
Is it a pork flavored nut or a nut shaped peanut or an ambiguous food flavored both pork and nut and WHY
Evil Dr. Carver is also at this snack institute to show off his genetically altered dancing peanuts. Bruh this is a circus act, first of all. Second of all, why aren't these people impressed by the scientific breakthroughs happening by these wack-ass crazy people?
I don't care if we are trying to push the whole plot based on peanut snacks - why would you think that people want to eat dancing/possibly alive peanuts? There's already a slim population of people who want to eat live food. Even less so when it can do cute things like dance and perform. And since your whole shtick is about producing a squad of super soldiers here made from peanuts, WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO EAT THEM?
Clones. CLONES. CLONES?!
TALKING FISH CLONE MONSTROSITY WITH A HEART OF GOLD THAT JUST SO HAPPENS TO EAT PEOPLE UNLESS HE RECOGNIZES THEM.
WE JUST GON WALK AWAY FROM ALL THIS CLONE AND MUTANT PEANUT SPECIES NONSENSE LIKE THIS NEVER HAPPENED? WE FLIP OVER UNCONTACTED TRIBES IN THE AMAZON AND HAVE A WHOLE FILM FRANCHISE ABOUT NOT TAMPERING WITH GENETICS CUZ DINOSAURS SHOULDN'T BE A THEME PARK EXHIBIT AND AIN'T NOBODY GONNA TALK ABOUT HOW THESE CREATURES WOULD'VE BEEN HAD THEIR OWN DISNEYLAND RIDE IN A MINUTE?!
Penny basically murdered a blimp full of super soldiers.
The bonus Puffzilla short at the end that I don't remember at all.
Oscar definitely doing what I mentioned in point #14 and capitalizing off of Cashew as his company mascot which... oh boy do I have a lot of problems with that. My dude wanted a family, not a to be the next Jared from Subway.
This nutty brother really named Cashew.
I'd like to end this rambling with another credit to just how bizarre this movie was while simultaneously cementing itself and the future of black cinema to be the way that it is today. That's right, boys and girls, it's time for another group chat snapshot that I have squirreled away for no reason other than that it tickled me and needed to be revisited at a future time. Well now is that time. Because, and forgive for this, but... this is nuts.
I NEED JORDAN PEELE TO TELL ME IF THE PROUD FAMILY MOVIE INSPIRED HIS FILM 'US'. PLEASE ANSWER ME, JORDAN.